AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Aww.” Marni reached out and gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You look so happy. I’ll check to see what Harper’s got going tonight and let you know.”
As Marni left, Ciara settled down, but only a bit. “Can I call Kareem and Weston and tell them?”
“Sure, but I already called Aunt Aileen and told her,” Morgan said.
“Are we making our special lasagna for Uncle Cory?” the girl asked.
Morgan turned to Blake. “When Cory was still single he used to come to our place for dinner a lot. Ciara and I used to cook together and he liked our lasagna the best.”
“Maybe the three of us can make something good together,” Ciara said, her eyes bright.
Morgan looked at Blake when he said, “Yeah, I think the three of us are going to make something really good together.”
Blake smiled. “You mean like a family?”
“Yaaay!” Ciara shouted and started her dance again.
12
When it came to his private life, even protection experts like Morgan had to relax now and then. A person could not live on guard twenty-four seven. When he had first begun shifting from in-person bodyguard work to running his business with Cory, Morgan used to still wear a concealed Ruger in an ankle holster.
But these days he rode a desk most of the week while sending his trained employees out for jobs and reserved carrying any kind of weapon for special occasions, like the day they sprung Crazy Kevin McLinson from the big house up river. Kevin swore he’d get even with everybody responsible for his arrest after he attacked the CEO of Prelorics Industries that Morgan and two of his men had been guarding.
Over time it turned out to be all talk. And lately, there were no such potential super cells brewing on Morgan’s Doppler.
Then again, some things always managed to sneak beneath the radar.
A couple weeks after the New Year, Morgan strolled across the dim parking lot toward his car after leaving the office building where Laken Raines occupied the whole top floor. He spotted a red Dodge Ram truck parked off to the side.That’s new.It gave him pause.
Glancing around, he saw Dotsy, who ran the notary public on the second floor. She usually worked late like he did, leaving after the other businesses in the building were gone for the day.
Although he’d honed his observation skills during his years of protection work, that was not what told Morgan something was off. It was an innate sense that had saved his butt more than once during his military tours overseas. Staying on alert, he kept walking as if everything was cool, did not want to signal whoever was watching him. Yeah, right now, he could feel someone watching him.
As Morgan went for his car door he heard feet moving in at a run from behind him. He spun around and saw three men with baseball bats closing in fast. Unarmed, Morgan braced himself for some nasty hands-on action.
A stocky man with a shaved head and a tattoo going up the side of his neck raised his bat and delivered a special pre-beatdown announcement. “Got a message for ya. Fawn wants her daughter back.”
Game on.
Swing and a miss, with Morgan ducking and stepping in too close for the bat to hit him and delivering a punch to the guy’s midsection, then to his jaw, just in time to see the bushy-bearded goon number two on his right closing in with his bat cocked. With a quick step to the side, Morgan fired a perfectly placed side kick into the man’s knee.
A distinct snapping sound, and the man dropped his bat as his leg collapsed beneath him, then fell to the ground writhing in pain.
Without missing a beat, Morgan turned to his left and slammed a ball-crushing front kick deep into the crotch of the other jerk who’d left himself wide open. No way he’d be peeing the same for the next six weeks. And as the bat dropped from the guy’s hands, Morgan snatched it and swung hard at his head. Down he went.
It all happened so fast that Morgan had to shift gears when the original guy did not move on him right away but stood there in front of him, a bat in one hand and a combat knife in the other.
“Your turn,” Morgan said with a smile.
With his bat cocked and knife held high, the guy nervously circled Morgan. He was the one who had delivered the message from Fawn. Had she actually sent him? Or was this an independent attempt to play hero for her? Either way, Morgan was not surprised that Fawn was hanging out with lowlife again. Some things never changed.
“Let’s do it.” Morgan waved him on with his hands. “Show me what you got. What’s the matter? Don’t you want to end up like your two friends?”
Fast as a cat, Morgan slapped the guy’s knife arm away, stepped behind his arm and grabbed his wrist, then slammed his forearm down hard on his lifted knee, making him drop the knife.
He followed up quickly with a leg sweep that did not quite take the brute off his feet. But as the cocky ringleader reeled, suddenly losing his cockiness, Morgan snatched the bat from his hand and jogged after the guy when he made a run for the red truck.
Yeah, it was obviously his. But Morgan would have none of that. Never start a fight with a man who can eat you for breakfast.
